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Essex Police: Significant action taken over domestic violence

Essex Police have taken "significant steps" to improve their services to victims of domestic abuse, following a report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

David Oakes, 50, shot dead his ex-partner Christine Chambers, 38, and their daughter Shania at their home in Braintree, Essex, in June last year.

The IPCC report said there had been catalogue of failings within Essex Police when investigating previous incidents involving the couple.

Asst Chief Constable Maurice Mason of Essex Police spoke to Anglia Tonight saying that "significant steps" had been taken to improve and review services to victims of domestic abuse.

He said:

The report does say, and it's very important to say this, that they cannot say with any certainty that we could have prevented the despicable and evil Oakes from committing those acts.

But we do accept the findings of this report fully, and we are doing everything we can to implement those findings. Domestic abuse is a blight on our society, it's one of our priorities, and the report actually says that we have taken significant action to reinforce the service we provide to victims of domestic abuse.

– Asst Chief Constable Maurice Mason of Essex Police

Since the incident Asst Ch Con Mason said that frontline teams dealing with domestic abuse had been augmented.

He said 76 additional officers had joined the specialist department and introduced a specialist domestic abuse intelligence team within the control room to ensure officers had the most accurate information when dealing with domestic abuse.

He added that the force deal with 100 incidents of domestic abuse a day and were treating the "tragic and unbearable"circumstances were an opportunity to review procedures and were treating it as "learning experience".